A group of essays written by Leo Strauss, originally published separately. These essays confront either explicitly or indirectly the radical historicism of Martin Heidegger. Strauss presents the classical idea of the philosophic life over against Heidegger's committed and spirited kind of "thinking" and his conscientious, single minded reflections on man's finitude and the abyss (i.e. Dasein, authentically experienced). Strauss also, in the essay entitled "Existentialism", carefully & sympathetically probes the intention of Heidegger's thought as a whole, following it's complete trajectory. Heidegger's thinking, Strauss shows us, is the powerful effectual core of "Existentialism." Strauss' lecture on "German Nihilism" provides an authentic firsthand witness' account of the spiritual background of Heidegger's revolution and the moods to which it appealed, as prepared by Nietzsche and Kierkegaard. The essay on "Philosophy as Rigorous Science" concerns the hopeful solutions of Husserl, which point to the grim crisis Heidegger faced, but in which Husserl does not abandon liberalism. In the essay on "Relativism", Strauss descends from a superficial, popular, & academic relativism (nihilism), pervasive within Liberal Democracy (and the University), into the serious, profound, and self-conscious relativism of Existentialism, beginning with Nietzsche and ending with Heidegger.
Finally, Strauss brings the classical understanding of man in all its noble serenity & grandeur to bear upon Heidegger's radical Historicism, recalling Nietzsche's philosophic attack, in the essay entitled "The Problem of Socrates". An essay by Allan Bloom on the intellectual biography of Strauss is also here included.
All of these Strauss essays are essential reading for any scholar or thinker who wishes to understand the extreme consequences of modern thought, and to grasp the inner spirit of its task. The conflict between Revelation and Philosophy emerges as the concealed fundamental problem in the understanding of Heidegger's attempt to overcome metaphysics. These valuable essays, as models of the subtle art of writing, are themselves a training in how to think, read, and write philosophically about the permanent fundamental problems. They are challenging works in their own right, require serious study, and will repay the effort with eternal rewards.

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